Homer Jay Simpson (born May 12, 1956)[14] is the main protagonist of the show. He is the spouse of Marge Simpson and father of Bart Simpson, Lisa Simpson, and Maggie Simpson. Homer is overweight (said be outonard 240 lbs), lazy, and often ignorant to the world around him. Although Homer has many flaws, he has shown to have great caring, love, and even bravery to those he cares about. He served as the main protagonist of both the TV series and the 2007 film adaptation.

Homer works as a low-level safety inspector at the Springfield Nuclear Power Plant in Sector 7G, although he is often incompetent and negligent towards his duty. He spends a great deal of his time at Moe's Tavern with his lifelong friends Barney, Carl, Lenny, and the bartender Moe. At his home, he can often be found sitting on the couch mindlessly watching TV while snacking on food and drinking Duff. Homer is also the only son of Abe and Mona. When Homer gets provoked, he strangles Bart for pressuring him. Even though he hates Patty and Selma, he played as Selma’s husband in order for her to adopt Ling. As a result of this, Homer is the legal adoptive father of Ling Bouvier.[15]

Homer may just be a normal man, but he has had many great achievements and experiences in his life. He has won a Grammy, an Academy Award, a Pulitzer Prize, been to space, and has saved Springfield many times.

Homer is named after Matt Groening's father, Homer Groening. In a series of interviews in 1990, Groening reportedly stated that he named the character after the Homer Simpson in The Day Of the Locust, a 1939 novel by Nathanael West, according to Planet Simpson, but neither explanation is considered definitive.

Contents

Biography

Homer in his late teens.

Homer was born on May 12, 1956. He was raised on the Simpson farm by his parents until they were forced to move out due to Homer spooking the cows by jumping out of a bale of hay and scaring them into giving sour milk, causing the bank to foreclose it. At some point in his childhood, Homer began drinking alcohol, and accidentally caused a traffic jam in his Playschool car.

When Homer was seven, Mona went into hiding following a run-in with the law. Before that, she took Homer and Abe to the Woodstock Music Festival, where Homer ended up briefly adopting the Hippie lifestyle, to Abe's disapproval.

At the age of 12, Homer, along with Lenny Leonard, Carl Carlson, and Moe Szyslak went over to a deep gorge to swim, but the water was drained. When investigating why the lake was reduced to a muddy pit, he stumbled upon a decomposing corpse inside the pipe, greatly traumatizing him and possibly leading to his overeating habit.

When he was 15, Homer participated in a beer drinking contest, lying that he was 22. However, he became so intoxicated that he ended up drinking a whole beer keg that was used the fill the contestants' cups. Eventually, Homer was so hungover, he had missed almost an entire month of school.

Before beginning high school, Homer convinced his friend, Barney, to have one beer can. Barney, who was an aspiring student preparing for Harvard, was annoyed by Homer, and unwillingly drank one beer. However, Barney became a drunken wreck and presumably failed his SAT tests.[16]

Homer attended Springfield High School and fell in love with Marge Bouvier.[17] After graduating, Marge and Homer bought an apartment at Springfield Place together. During this time, Marge got a letter accepting her into a college. To pay for her tuition, Abe gives Homer a job at Simpson Laser Tag. The couple broke up for some time after Homer started a Grunge band called Sadgasm. Marge realizes that she really loves Homer, and she goes back to him.[18] At some point between finishing high school and marrying Marge, Homer briefly served in the US Army, but never saw combat. Due to a clerical error, he was discharged two weeks early and years later after a disastrous dinner party with his old sergeant, Homer was forced to complete his tour of duty.

When the couple were in their mid-20s, Marge became pregnant with Bart. At this time Homer was working at Sir Putt-A-Lot's Merrie Olde Fun Centre, turning the crank that spins the windmill. The two got married in Shotgun Pete's 24 Hour Wedding Chapel, a small wedding chapel across the state line. They spent their wedding reception alone at a truck stop, before ending up at the Bouvier House, where they lived at the time. After failing to get a job at the Springfield Nuclear Power Plant, Homer left Marge to find a job by which he could support his family. He went to work at a taco restaurant called the Gulp 'n' Blow until Marge found him and convinced him to return home with her. As a result, Homer confronted Mr. Burns and secured a job at the Plant.[19] Two years after Bart was born, Marge became pregnant with Lisa, shortly before they bought their first house.[20] Homer's second leap to stardom was his success as the lead singer and songwriter for the barbershop quartet The Be Sharps, even winning a Grammy. During his time with the group, Homer was frequently absent from home, which put stress on his marriage. After the group broke up due to creative differences, Homer went back to Springfield to continue his old life.[21]

When in his 30s, Homer prepared a budget so that he could work at his dream job, a pin monkey at the Bowlarama Bowling Alley, owned by Barney's uncle Al Gumble. The budget included buying regular toilet paper and that only one of the kids could go to college. Unfortunately for Homer, Marge became pregnant with Maggie around this time, and he went back to the Nuclear Plant in order to support his family.[22] Since then, Homer has started many jobs, but in the end, he always comes back to his job at the Nuclear Plant. He has nearly caused the destruction of Springfield a couple of times, after a nuclear meltdown at the plant and polluting Lake Springfield with his pet pig's (and his own) waste.[23]

Childhood Summary

Homer's childhood was a tragic one. He lost his mother at a young age and his father never took notice to Homer. This caused Homer to be very insecure about himself and underachieving things, thinking he lacked the skills to do so, which left him behind in school and life in general and has most likely caused how he is today.

Jobs

“(To his safety rally) Friends, you have come to depend on me as your safety watchdog so you won't scrape yourself or stub your toes or blow yourselves up. But you can't depend on me all your life. You have to learn that there's a little Homer Simpson in all of us, and I'm going to have to live without your respect and awe. The only reason I'm telling you this is I'm going to be leaving you, but don't worry. I have just been appointed the new safety inspector at this very plant with a big, fat raise!”

In Homer’s Odyssey, he worked at the Springfield Nuclear Power Plant as a technical supervisor. He was fired by Sherri and Terri's father, who was his supervisor, for creating a deadly gas leak. He was later rehired to safety inspector for Sector 7G, after complaining about the safety of the plant itself. Ironically, the accidents that occur at the plant have doubled every year since Homer was made safety inspector.[25]

Homer as Santa.

Homer rarely attends his job, and yet seldom gets fired (and when he does get fired, he always ends up rehired somehow) and always has his job waiting when he plans to get rehired and has impulsively quit occasionally to pursue other careers, although he always ends up losing or quitting these jobs. On one occasion Homer has misinterpreted a threat about losing his job as a hint that he can take the following day off.

Homer also applied for a job as Santa, to make up for his missed Christmas bonus at the power plant.[26]

Criminal Record

Homer has committed a wide range of crimes and infractions, from ticket-worthy offenses to felonies. He's spent little time in jail for his actions, but if he were to be found guilty of all the counts detailed below, he could find himself sentenced to life in jail plus 350 years and fined somewhere in the range of $120 million. Here's a run-down of Homer’s crimes, along with some prime examples:

Buying illegal fireworks: In "Summer of 4 Ft. 2", Homer buys illegal fireworks from a convenience store at the beach.

Child abuse: In "Simpson and Delilah", Homer strangles Bart after he spills his bottle of his hair growth serum. In "Like Father, Like Clown", when he tells Bart he doesn't have to follow in his footsteps, Bart says he won’t even use the bathroom after him, and Homer strangles him. In "Lisa's Pony", a flashback of him being too busy strangling Bart to notice Lisa saying "Dada". In "Radio Bart", he strangles Bart after he realizes Bart fooled him with a fake radio announcement. In "Lisa's First Word", he strangles baby Bart for calling him "Domer" and for flushing his wallet down the toilet. In "So It's Come to This: A Simpsons Clip Show", he strangles Bart after he admits to shaking up the beer can. In "Secrets of a Successful Marriage", while teaching a class on building a successful marriage, Homer strangles Bart when he says that Homer dared him to steal mail and throw it down a sewer. In "Lisa the Tree Hugger", while protesting in a tree, Lisa looks at the house through binoculars and sees Homer strangling Bart. In "Simpsoncalifragilisticexpiala-D'oh-cious", just when magical nanny Shary Bobbins thinks she's cured the family’s problems, she sees Homer strangling Bart. In "Children of a Lesser Clod", he strangles Bart after he shows video of Homer’s bad behavior as he’s receiving a citizenship award. In "Brawl in the Family", he strangles Bart after he discovers that he's been cheating at Monopoly by using Lego blocks as hotels. In "Mayored to the Mob", he knocks Bart and Lisa unconscious with a Vulcan death grip maneuver.

Defying a court order: In "The Parent Rap", Homer escapes with Marge from a tether and stocks.

Appearance

Homer's appearance is that of an overweight balding man. Despite his overweight status, and hate for exercise, he has on occasion shown surprising physical prowess and agility for a man of his body type, such as when training for Whacking Day and he hits several pop-up Snakes with kicks and even back-flipping. His baldness is contributed by several factors, such as upon finding out whenever Marge was pregnant, he would tear out a substantial amount of his hair. Another contribution is working at the nuclear plant for so many years that the exposure to radioactivity has caused most of his hair to fall out. Another frequent topic on Homer's obesity is his large posterior which is often joked about by Bart. His eyes are blue and he is 6 feet tall (183 cm). While his weight is debatable, the most common weight given is 239 pounds (though many jokes about his weight would suggest he is much heavier). He wears a white polo shirt, blue jeans, white underpants, and gray loafers.

Personality

“(To Lisa) Now, you lost someone special and it hurt. I never lost anyone special to me. Everyone special to me is under this roof. It's true. Now, you'll have lots of special people in your life. There's probably a place they hang out and the food is good, and guys like me are serving drinks. Maybe I can't explain all this, but I can fix your dollhouse. At least I'm good at monkey work. You know, monkey? You know what I mean? I can hold these nails in place with my tail.”

“Look, Marge. You don't know what it's like. I'm the one out there putting his ass on the line. And I'm not out of order. You're out of order! The whole freakin' system is out of order. You want the truth? You want the truth? You can't handle the truth! 'Cause when you reach over and put your hand into a pile of goo that was your best friend's face, you'll know what to do! Forget it, Marge. It's Chinatown!”

“How dare you talk about Ned Flanders like that. He's a wonderful, kind, caring man. Maybe even more so than me. There have been times when I lost patience with him, even lashed out at him, but this man has turned every cheek on his body. If everyone here were like Ned Flanders, there'd be no need for Heaven. We'd already be there.”

Homer is a pure moron who can go back and forth from being downright horrible to an extremely caring and loving man. Homer's personality is one of frequent immaturity, frequent stupidity, dim witness, selfishness, laziness, and explosive anger; one might say it is that of the "Average Joe". He also suffers from a short attention span which complements his intense but short-lived passion for hobbies, enterprises and various causes. Despite his family flaws, he is a loving father and husband, even if he can be ignorant or oblivious to families feelings and ideas. When he thinks he has let anyone he loves down, it really does affect him, and in the end, will do anything for them. Another contribute to his "Working Joe" persona was that he has also shown to be sensitive about his masculinity; being initially upset over Marge becoming a police officer as he thought it made her "the man of the house", as well as refusing to call a contractor when Marge wanted her kitchen remodeled as to not emasculate his pride.

Homer is prone to emotional outbursts; he gets very envious of his neighbors, the Flanders family, and is easily enraged at his son, Bart, and strangles the boy in an exaggerated manner. His trademark phrase to strangling Bart, "Why you little...!" and on one occasion, "Why you little bastard!" [27] He also spanks Bart sometimes and, in one case, Lisa. One time, he was too busy to spank them, so he told them to go to their rooms and spank themselves. He does not show compunction about this, and is not attempting to hide his actions from people outside the family, even showing disregard for his son's well being in other ways, such as leaving Bart alone at a port,[28] or allowing Bart to go court for skateboarding naked on his dare when all he would have to do is attend a one hour parenting class signifying not only his disregard for Bart but his extreme laziness.[23]

Homer also possesses an extreme dislike for his sisters-in-law, Patty and Selma Bouvier. This is because they often talk down on him for the kind of man he is, selfish and dimwitted. He also openly calls them ugly. He uses labels such as "The Gruesome Twosome",[29] "Fatty and Smellma"[30] and "Two Sobbing Trolls". He also gave his children the impression that Patty and Selma are horrible and nasty witches, which is the reason why the kids don't like spending time with their aunts. The sisters in turn, hate Homer as much he hates them. Patty and Homer have a very vile, antagonistic relationship but his relationship with Selma has rarely softened up over the years.

While Homer has repeatedly upset people and caused all sorts of mayhem in Springfield, these events are usually caused by either his explosive temper or lack of foresight. Except for expressing annoyance at Ned Flanders, Homer's actions are usually unintentional. Most of his explosive anger is targeted on Bart, because of something stupid or bad he had said or done. Despite their disadvantages, these common outbursts saved Homer from dying of a pentup rage-induced heart attack.[31] Although he usually has an explosive temper, there are a few instances, usually in very serious situations, where Homer's anger was so subdued yet so immense that he outwardly appeared calm and spoke in an even-handed tone despite very clearly being outraged. Notable examples of this include when he learned that Bart had gone on a road trip via a fake license and are stuck in Tennessee doing odd jobs: He outwardly acted as if he was calm, and had to obscure his face to vent his anger enough to fog up his visor before adopting his calm exterior and vowed to send him money to get home before darkly stating that he'll murder him as soon as he gets home before Lisa talks him out of it.[32] Another instance of this was when learning that Mr. Burns didn't address him in his thank you card, where after lowering the letter in an angry manner, he calmly requests that Bart and Lisa step outside for a second, with Bart and Lisa doing so without question and immediately due to being very scared at Homer's evidently furious appearance (although he then promptly manages to scream what is heavily implied to be the f-bomb after they've left in a loud enough volume that all of Springfield stopped what they were doing in shock).[33] He also reacted like this to his father after the latter revealed that not only was Homer's own conception an accident, but implied that he would have been happier if he had never been born: After learning this, Homer gasped and braked to a stop immediately, before twice sternly telling Abraham Simpson to step out of the car in a calm yet clearly infuriated tone while scowling and not even looking at him, and then promptly driving away fast.[34] He also initially acted like this when forced to adopt a swear jar and having to put coins in the swear jar to curb his swearing habits. When getting himself injured twice by accidentally breaking his thumb by whacking his thumb as well as impaling his foot with a nail deep enough as to require a tetnis shot, he initially robotically stated his first injury and then talking in a pseudo-kindly manner the second time while twitching with rage, before stating that, while he won't swear, he will kick the doghouse down, the last part he states by screaming it out in clear rage.[35]

While Homer's stupid antics often upset his family, he has also performed acts that reveal him to be a surprisingly loving father and husband, such as selling his cherished ride on the Duff Blimp and using the money to enter Lisa in a beauty pageant so she could feel better about herself,[36] giving up his chance at wealth to allow Maggie to keep a cherished teddy bear;[37] spearheading an attempt to dig Bart out after he had fallen down a well, even though he hates doing physical labor[38] and arranging a surprise second wedding with Marge to make up for their lousy first ceremony, even going so far as to hire one of The Doobie Brothers as part of the wedding band and getting a divorce from Marge, essentially making their second wedding a "real" one.[39]

Despite his hatred of manual labor, Homer does a surprising amount of DIY work around his home. He built a jungle gym, a costume of Florida for Lisa, a birdhouse and spice rack for Marge (however, these are shabby at best and two of them actually fell apart). He also remodeled his kitchen when Marge felt insecure about hers after meeting the neighbor's deluxe one, however, this was more because he felt emasculated when Marge tried to phone a contractor.[40]

Homer's stupidity and ignorance make him clueless to sensitive matters as well as when he is being insulted or his life is in danger. An example is when he came close to drinking a beaker of sulfuric acid but was spared after his colleague, Frank Grimes knocked the acid out of his hand. Instead of being shocked, Homer only responded with jovial delight and laughter. He was also completely oblivious to Grimes' hostility towards him, only being aware that the two of them were enemies after the latter made it painstakingly clear. Homer was an atheist and anti-gay. He adheres to no religion and only goes to church because Marge constantly forces him to. In "Homer the Heretic", he quits church altogether but later chooses to go as he was saved from an inferno, which is in his eyes a miracle. In the climax of the same episode, he is seen falling asleep during Reverend Lovejoy's sermon. He also paid no respect to Jesus' resting place after being granted a trip to Bethlehem by Ned Flanders; however, he did come to believe himself a messiah after suffering a hallucination from days in the desert while searching for Ned (who actually just got a glass of tepid water).

Homer tends to derive amusement from the misfortune of others. He is a chronic thief and borderline kleptomaniac which ranges from petty to grand theft, stealing everything from TV trays to power tools and air conditioners, even an entire room of the Flanders House from Ned Flanders. He has also stolen golf balls from the local driving range, office supplies (including computers) from work, and beer mugs from Moe's Tavern.

Homer has a vacuous mind, but he is still able to retain a great amount of knowledge about very specific subjects. He often shows short bursts of astonishing insight, memory, creativity, and fluency with many languages! Homer is also extremely confident; no matter how little skill or knowledge he has about anything he tries to do, he has no doubt that he will be successful. However, his brief periods of intelligence are overshadowed by much longer and more consistent periods of ignorance, forgetfulness, and stupidity. Homer has a low IQ due to many factors. Some of which include: his alcohol problem, exposure to radioactive waste, repetitive cranial trauma, and the crayon lodged in the frontal lobe of his brain. He also implied that he would have been at least a bit smarter and more athletic, if not by a substantial amount, if his father had tried to give him encouragement rather than beat him down.[41] Another large factor of Homer's unintelligent is his inheritance of the"Simpson Gene" which causes all male members of the Simpson family to become more and more unintelligent as they grow older. It is also implied Homer repeated second grade,[42] most probably due to the Simpson Gene kicking in.

But what is probably the biggest cause of his simple-mindedness was an incident that happened when he was six years old and goofing around by shoving a 16 pack of crayons up his nose. When he had shoved all of them up his nasal passage he sneezed the crayons out. Not all of them, however. Unbeknownst to him, one of the crayons got lodged in the right lobe of his brain. Homer would not learn this fact until adulthood when he was forced to take a job as a human guinea pig to support his family where the crayon was found in a 3D x-ray of his brain (shortly after Dr. Hibbert admits that every time he ever viewed an x-ray of his brain he would always unknowingly block the crayon with his thumb which is why it was never found before). The doctors tell Homer that they could possibly try to remove the crayon via surgery and it would either greatly increase his intelligence or kill him. After a slight consideration, Homer chooses to take the risk. The operation ended up being a great success and with the increased blood flow in his brain, Homer's intelligence skyrocketed.

His intelligence was said to jump up fifty points when he had the crayon removed, bringing him to an IQ of 105, slightly above that of an average person (though he showed far above average intelligence), but he went back to his old self when he had it reinserted, presumably lowering his IQ back down to its original 55.[43] This IQ score is, however, likely a joke or oversight on the producers' part, as someone with an IQ of 55 would be unable to look after themselves and would be classified as severely mentally handicapped. Also from the level of intelligence, he showed it's much more likely that his IQ was boosted to 135-155. Despite his handicap, Homer does have a degree of long-term, calculated planning of what might happen, such as when, shortly before taking his "forget-me-shot" from Moe Szyslak, requested for their anniversary party to have a Moon Jump, due to realizing exactly what will happen afterwards.[42]

While Homer's lack of intelligence and short attention span normally just results in him looking like a fool, it also sometimes causes him to unintentionally bring harm to the people around him. One example is when he dumps a piece of industrial garbage in the garbage can at Krusty Burger, followed by a lit match which he used to light a victory cigar. The combination of the two caused a fire on the supply lines for the fast food chains of spring field and caused chain reaction destroying all the restaurants in the process.[44]

Also, it also makes him less aware of how what he says might affect people emotionally, like for a note quiz where he asked Ned Flanders about his sexual life, forgetting that his wife had passed away six months prior.[45] His ignorance at one point even cost his family their home since he didn't understand how a home equity lone worked, putting them massively in debt and making it so they could no longer afford their mortgage. Though luckily, the house was purchased by Ned, who allowed them to rent the living space.[46]

Homer has at times debated against his brain. Occasionally, a specific body part such as his face, stomach or liver is also shown debating with his brain. In one notable scene, Homer's mind actually leaves his body out of boredom, causing him to collapse.[47] Homer is also inclined to retreat into fantasy, such as daydreaming of Germany as "the land of chocolate".[48][49]

Homer's attitudes toward women, romance, and sex are occasionally shown. While Homer's marriage with Marge is occasionally strained, it seems generally happy. Despite this, Homer is often tempted with other women, and usually shows no qualms with gawking at (and drooling over) attractive women. Homer almost had an affair with Mindy Simmons,[50] but ended up not wanting to. He has made the occasional remark denoting his attraction to other women (including his neighbor's wife), even in front of Marge on an occasion, but always shows his devotion to Marge in the end.

In earlier seasons (such as Season 1), Homer's personality was different. Homer was an angry, grumpy, ignorant man who got embarrassed by his family (instead of the other way around) but generally loved them. He also was prone to angry outbursts, such as yelling at Bart and Lisa, strangling Bart (which has continued in later seasons), and giving Krusty the Clown the middle finger in court after Homer had assumed it was him who robbed the Kwik-E-Mart.

Homer has since developed into a less intelligent nicer person in later seasons. Homer's "angry personality" still sometimes surfaces up, usually whenever getting pressured by Bart.

Based on the "Disco Sucks" bumper sticker he removed from his old car when about to sell it before leaving Marge, he was not fond of the Disco genre.[51]

Religious Beliefs

“God I gotta ask you something; what's the meaning of life?Homer I can't tell you that...Come on...You'll find out when you die!I can't wait that long...You can't wait six months?..”

Despite attending church every Sunday, Homer is not very religious, and it is likely that he only attends church because he knows that Marge would be hurt and shocked if he did not. He does not seem to practice Christian morals and frequently sleeps in church, much to the annoyance of Reverend Lovejoy. He also admitted that in addition to sleeping in church, he also mentally undresses the female churchgoers.[52] He often mispronounces the name of the Christ, calling Him "Jebus". In "The Simpsons Movie", before entering church, he says, "Relax, those pious morons are too busy talking to their phony-baloney God."

When asked by Bart what religion Homer belongs to, he replies, "You know, the one with all the well-meaning rules that don't work out in real life. Uh… Christianity".[53]

Homer's brief cultist opinion about real Christian

Despite this, he is a Christian and willingly attends church after Ned, Apu, and Krusty saved him from a house fire. He was also inadvertently baptized by Ned, initially reacting violently before speaking in a religious manner, and returning to his normal self thereafter when questioned by Ned. Homer also tried to become a good Christian in "Tis the Fifteenth Season".

Homer had actually met God face to face several times and has even gotten permission from him in a dream to skip church.[54][55]

Alter-Egos

Homer became a superhero named Pie Man when the Rich Texan offends Lisa. He chucks pies in the faces of evildoers or people who deserve to be pied, uses the basement as a Pie Cave and his car as the Piemobile. Bart is his sidekick as Cupcake Kid. He also tried to don a graffiti alias as "El Homo", which was meant to be a Mexican take on his name but erased it when he realized the alias was Spanish for homosexual.[56]

Homer is one of the four best friends (Lenny, Carl, Moe), who call themselves "The Guys".

Skills and Abilities

Physical Prowess

Homer's skills seem to vary greatly. Sometimes, Homer can find it difficult to run to the smallest distances before passing out from exhaustion, and other times, he has exceeded the prowess of gold medal Olympians. He can have trouble understanding the simplest of concepts to being able to build a functional robot with a working A.I.[57] His physical strength is just as random: At times, he is too weak to even kill a fly by punching it,[11] while at other times, he is able to lift a motorbike above his head, and use it as a sword effortlessly and throw punches that send people flying with ease.[58]

Additionally, in his youth, Homer was once a very talented gymnast, even catching high school Marge's eye with his ability. Unfortunately, his father's lack of faith in him caused him to blunder in front of the entire school, which promptly led to the end of his career.

Homer also is a proficient bowler. He once bowled a perfect game, leading to short-term fame for him.

Endurance

Homer has shown to have near-superhuman endurance and durability, repeatedly surviving accidents that could easily kill other people. His well-padded stomach allowed him to survive direct cannon fire to the stomach with no immediate injuries, although later it was found that repeated fire had destroyed his stomach which could have killed him.

Homer's skull is a quarter inch thicker than the average skull (dubbed "Homer Simpson Syndrome") that protects him completely from cranial injury up to a certain point allowing him to be beaten by normal folk with no effect but can be hurt by significant force such as getting punched in the face by the world heavyweight boxing champion or falling repeatedly down Springfield Gorge. At one point, Homer even survived having every bone in his body broken from a fall that would have liquefied a regular person. Another time, he managed to get back up and walk around from being mauled by a badger in a failed and foolish attempt to get it out of Santa's Little Helper's doghouse despite having his entire gut torn out and exposing his intestines (which the badger somehow accomplished without ripping his shirt. This could have been accomplished by the badger going under Homer's shirt instead of attacking him through it).

Homer is constantly ending up in sticky situations, such as being caught in a fire on at least four occasions, almost drowning, animal attacks and more. In some episodes, he "almost dies" twice, and in one episode, Frank Grimes' son was trying to murder Homer, and all through the episode Homer ended up in situations that would normally kill a person. In Homer Scissorhands, he tries to commit barbicide by drinking a container of disinfectant. Once realizing it did nothing to him, he questions why nothing ever seems to kill him, even several simultaneous heart attacks.

Homer is not a stranger to pain. He gets hurt in one form or another in almost every episode and frequently breaks bones and ends up in the hospital. He has also needed several life-saving operations, such as a triple bypass and suffering four simultaneous heart attacks. In one episode, Marge gets concerned at how much Homer almost dies as a result of sticky situations and begs him to get life insurance where we find out that he has also had three strokes and is, therefore, not insurable.

In an interview with Matt Groening, he jokingly states that Homer is unable to die due to God finding him far too entertaining to kill off and enjoys his pain-induced suffering.

Music

One skill that remains somewhat constant throughout the series is his musical talent. Homer can play the guitar amazingly well, play the piano like a natural, and became an accomplished singer and songwriter. He has been part of several bands which were all extremely popular. He won a Grammy for barbershop,[21] numerous golden records for his grunge band, which is a music style he also invented,[18] and was able to help Lisa win a music contest using songs he wrote for her.[59] While laying on his back, Homer possesses a powerful operatic voice that while at hospital stops crying babies and even revives a flat-lined patient, leading him to become a wildly popular opera star.[60]He is a great conductor being able to lead the untrained kids of Springfield Elementary into playing a flawless rendition of Stars and Stripes Forever[61]He also been shown to play the bass.

Fighting

Homer is a talented fighter, fighting with great prowess in his duel with Peter Griffin.

Language

Like Bart, Homer is a polyglot, someone with the ability to pick up languages fairly quickly, perhaps even a hyper polyglot (a polyglot fluent in more than six languages). He has been shown to speak Spanish, Chinese, Penguin[62] and when he and Bart were imprisoned in Japan for a seemingly short amount of time due to unknowingly assaulting Emperor Akihito, he was able to speak the language fluently by the time he left.[63] He was also able to pick up a few Indian words by watching Apu and Manjula argue.[64] He was also shown to mimic people's voices especially well. This was evidenced in a flashback in Grampa vs. Sexual Inadequacy, where Homer, after watching a televised speech made by then-President John F. Kennedy, proceeded to flawlessly mimic Kennedy's speech pattern and mannerisms.

Defying the Laws of Science

In addition to being able to accomplish what no man of his health and standing could, Homer has been able to accomplish things that defy all logic and reason whatsoever, such as causing cornflakes and milk to burst into flames and cause a nuclear meltdown in a testing van, despite no fissionable materials being present in it at the time.

Leadership

Even though Homer is consistently depicted as being unpopular his entire life, he has been able to incite a mob on multiple occasions. He has incredible sway over crowds and is able to motivate people for just causes, such as shutting down the nuclear plant, and also to calm down an angry mob- something very difficult to do- such as when he prevented the destruction of Springfield's burlesque house. Like Bart, he is almost always made leader in whatever bizarre situation he comes across, although, unlike Bart, that leadership isn't always appreciated, such as when Homer becomes the leader of the Stonecutters, which shortly afterwards causes all of the members to quit.

Health

Homer while varying in physical ability from episode to episode has been consistently portrayed as a binge drinking, over eating, accident-prone dare devil who puts absolutely no thought into what his actions will cost him, all of which has made it impossible to get any form of insurance which concerns his health. A magazine health test calculated Homer's lifestyle would lead him to pass on at 42.

Homer is in the hospital in at least one episode every season and has had several life-saving operations, not including the one for his triple heart bypass which he needed after his arteries were clogged with cholesterol. He also had at least two separate series of stress-induced heart attacks from learning of how much money Mr. Burns offered Lisa to repay her for her "help" in restoring his fortune and especially her refusal of said money: The first, upon witnessing Lisa tear up the check, was severe enough that he promptly collapsed and, according to Dr. Hibbert, underwent four simultaneous heart attacks. The second, which was after Lisa corrected him regarding just how much she actually refused, was severe enough that it caused a Code Blue alert at the Hospital.[65]

Years of working in a sub standard nuclear facility has left his blood irradiated to show up on an x-ray without the dye that is normally required to make the blood visible having to be administered, as well as having rendered him sterile.

Homer's gluttonous eating habits

Homer loves food, he can almost always be seen eating far more than any one man could possibly eat alone. His favorites are foods which he knows are bad for him, and will blatantly refuse healthy food such as oatmeal and fruit in favor of fatty meals. He particularly enjoys donuts. Though he has tried multiple times to switch to a healthier diet, he has always ended up reverting to his unhealthy eating habits after a relatively short amount of time. He was once willing to die upon eating a poisoned éclair despite knowing it would kill him, only to throw it away in horror when Lisa claimed it was low fat.

Homer once grew to 300 pounds so that he could go on disability for work.

Homer also seems to have a problem with his sense of hearing, as the result of both attending and putting on loud rock concerts regularly in his youth.[66] In addition, an incident with Bart shown in the episode Barthood in which Bart blasted an airhorn into his ear until it began bleeding may have further compounded this. This may explain why he can so easily phase out what people are saying to him, intentionally or otherwise.

Age

Hair Loss

There are multiple theories on how Homer lost his hair. Earlier episodes suggested that he was simply a victim of male pattern baldness (A problem he told Bart was "Hereditary"). One theory suggests that Homer ripped out some of his hair when he realized Marge was pregnant with Bart, then more when he found out she was pregnant with Lisa, and tearing out a single hair when he found out she was pregnant with Maggie (this couldn't be possible as he is shown having different reactions to the realization that his wife was pregnant[71][72]). It is also very possible he lost his hair from the radiation at the nuclear plant.

"Marge on the Lam" was the closest to the truth, and possibly the truth, as it is (almost) explained visually: Homer also volunteered for an army experiment because he didn't want to have dinner with Marge's sisters. The army doctor attempted to warn him that the side effects of the experiment were "hair loss, giddiness and the loss of equilibrium", but Homer ignored him.

Another theory is that Homer's hair was once squirted with some kind of acid, thus causing permanent hair loss.[73]

Relationships

Romantic

Despite being married to Marge throughout the entire show, Homer has had a number of romantic encounters.

Homer is the husband of Marge Simpson. They met when they were younger without learning who each other was before meeting again properly in high school. They have had three weddings.[27][39] The pair have a very strong marriage which has survived cheating, amnesia and many arguments. They have been in love since their high school senior year.[17]

Mindy Simmons was an attractive employee at the Springfield Nuclear Power Plant who has nearly everything in common with Homer. They attended a convention together and nearly had an affair.[50] After Homer turned her down, he later says that she "hit the bottle pretty hard and got fired."

Lurleen is a waitress who Homer helped in launching a successful singing career. She attempted to seduce him without any success. She has been married multiple times to men that all look like Homer.[74]

Amber was a waitress at a casino in Las Vegas and was Homer's Vegas wife. Homer accidentally married her when he and Ned Flanders got drunk. Ned married the other waitress at the casino named Ginger. Doing the only decent thing they could, they ran for it.[75] The family managed to get her drunk and made her marry Abe, which made her run back to Vegas. Amber died from a drug overdose.[76]

When Homer becomes a famous Opera singer, he attracts the attention of horde of fans including a stalker by the name of Julia. She confesses to Homer that she is his to do with as he wants, becoming his personal assistant and attempting to seduce him at every turn. When he proclaims that his heart belongs to Marge she attempts to kill him with no success.[60]

Friendships

Moe is the owner of Moe's Tavern and is Homer's main supply of beer, making him a very important person in Homer's life. Homer spends a lot of his time talking to Moe in his tavern and seems to go to him whenever he has a problem. Homer has also helped Moe with his love life. Moe has told Homer before that he is his best friend and they both seem to be in understanding that the two are "life partners." Despite this, Moe once risked Homer's life in exchange for a shot at being a notable name in the boxing community again, but in the end his friendship for Homer proved stronger than his dream and he literally flew in and saved Homer from getting beaten during a match. Even so, Moe has been known to point a shotgun at Homer for various reasons (see "Pygmoelian" and "The Parent Rap").

Barney Gumble is one of Homer's best friends. They were both born in 1954 making Homer the same age as Barney. They have been friends since childhood (one time getting drunk from Abe Simpson II's beer and "wrapping Homer's wagon around a tree") but have been best friends since high school. Homer was the one who first convinced Barney to try beer and inadvertently caused him to throw away a potential life at Harvard and instead become an alcoholic.[77]

Lenny and Carl are Homer's co-workers at the Nuclear Power Plant, and they were familiar with Homer in their childhood days.[7] They are Homer's most frequent companions at Moe's Tavern, after Barney. Abe Simpson claimed to have bribed Lenny and Carl to be his friends at a young age.

Homer has been depicted as friends with Monty Burns on many occasions, such as when they got drunk together at a baseball game or were on a bowling team together. On the other hand, Burns has also sworn eternal vengeance against Homer on just as many occasions, and even more so than that Burns seems to be unable to remember who Homer Simpson is (a running gag on the series) despite the fact that almost all of his major life events are related in some way to Homer. Usually, Homer is afraid of Burns and acknowledges his presence with a scream, but it has been shown that once the two warm up to each other, they get along famously until Homer inadvertently does something to end the friendship.

In addition, although Homer usually takes Mr. Burns' failure to remember his name in stride, there has been one instance where this caused a lot of anger from Homer, which was during the Sun Blocker incident. Homer attempted to get Mr. Burns to remember his name, with his eventually sending a chocolate box with a photo of the family stuck in. However, he didn't get thanked for this (although in that case, it's because Mr. Burns ended up throwing away the box while one candy was left, with the last candy obscuring Homer's face), causing him to be infuriated enough to give a horrendous swear in a loud enough volume that all of Springfield stopped in shock. He eventually resorted to vandalizing Mr. Burns' office to spraypaint his name and even physically assault his boss to force him to remember his name, although this ended up failing with Mr. Burns referring to him as an "unidentified assailant". Ironically, the one time he DOES remember Homer's name actually nearly got Homer into deep trouble when he was considered the suspect for the shooting against Mr. Burns, which had him assaulting Mr. Burns at the hospital to stop him from claiming that he shot him (unaware that Mr. Burns was simply parroting Homer Simpson's name in a half-lucid state due to regaining consciousness). Because of this, Homer was notably one of two characters whose grudge against Mr. Burns during that time had absolutely nothing to do with either Burns Slant Drilling Co. or the Sun Blocker, the only other being his daughter Maggie Simpson, the actual culprit.

Ned Flanders is Homer's perfect neighbor whose belongings are usually "borrowed" by Homer and never given back. Homer takes obvious advantage of his push-over neighbor and is usually an avid participant in the one-sided rivalry the two have going on, although Ned sometimes gets caught up in Homer's taunts (such as when the two pit their sons against each other in a putt-putt tournament). It has also been hinted that Homer lusts after Flanders' wife, Maude (now deceased). Homer enjoys insulting Flanders and making his life more difficult, which Flanders all takes in stride. Even so, Homer has genuine feelings for his neighbor; he feels truly guilty when he causes Flanders' business to sink and takes it upon himself to save the Leftorium, he makes it his personal duty to revive Flanders' love life after Maude passes, and he also invites Flanders to his barbecues and other events with genuine enthusiasm. He has also acknowledged that Ned is his best friend, referring to him once as "Stupid Best Friend Flanders". Homer loves to see Flanders struggle because he perceives the Flanders' lives to be the unobtainable perfection that he will never have, and he especially loves beating Flanders, but he hates when Flanders is totally crushed. There are also incidents where Homer inadvertently causes harm to Flanders. A notable example of this is when Homer ends up unwittingly releasing a radioactive ape into Flanders' house after the ape in question tricked Homer, resulting in it occupying the attic. This incident also resulted in Flanders having to report it to Chief Wiggum at the Police Station, a report caught on CCTV camera and eventually acquired illegally by Comic Book Guy.

Apu and Homer are good friends; their families get together for dinners and they regularly have conversations when Homer is purchasing some confection at Apu's Kwik-E-Mart. When Apu lost his job at the Kwik-E-Mart, he stayed with the Simpsons, Apu's wedding was also held at the Simpsons, and when Apu needs help with some problem the wacky solution and implementation usually include Homer (stealing Apu's children from the zoo, letting Apu use Homer's family as his own when his mother visits to dodge having to go through with an arranged marriage).

Clancy Wiggum is a friend of Homer and he and Homer have shown their relationship in "Chief of Hearts", when Homer gave sandwiches to him. They have been friends since. Even before then, they also were at the very least acquaintances, notably being invited to barbecues by Homer, as well as Homer and Wiggum, alongside the other townspeople, often plotting to do activites when they are annoyed at recent events (such as their wives pushing them away because of Apu overindulging his wife for Valentine's Day, and the events of the Presidential Election in Springfield).

Children

Homer's relationship with his children fluctuates greatly from episode to episode.

Homer's relationship with Bart is a strange one indeed; Homer has threatened Bart with murder before, yet at other times, the two get along better than anyone else. Homer usually refers to Bart as "the boy" and has mentioned spanking and beating Bart before. All that is ever shown, however, is either Homer growling and lunging for Bart, chasing him, or else strangling him. Homer was held in a mental hospital once due to his aggression with Bart, although, once the doctors realized that Bart was in fact real, they released him. It is implied that Bart is the reason that Homer is bald. Homer blames most of his misfortunes on Bart and is the strict abuser of Bart in the strict abusive family. As a result, Bart usually takes advantage of his father's stupidity to humiliate him (as he does with most authority figures). Because of their often turbulent relationship, Bart commonly refers to Homer as Homer instead of Dad, especially when Bart is humiliating him. Homer has also implied that he wouldn't mind if Bart changed 100% and that he isn't very attached to him as he is. However, Homer also frequently shows genuine care for Bart and has expressed that he loves him, in spite of their differences and treatment of one another. He truly is ashamed whenever he embarrasses Bart and he tries to be a better father to Bart than Abe was to him, for example, he overly supports Bart when he is on the football team because his father never once supported him. Homer has even risked his life to impress Bart, such as taking a cannonball to the stomach because he realized that doing so caused Bart to idolize him. He was even willing to jump across Springfield Gorge to help Bart understand the stupidity of risking one's life for short-lived thrills and glory.

Homer and Bart share the same sense of humor and adventure and therefore are almost always partners during wild escapades, such as when Homer became a truck driver or when they were arrested together in Japan. They spend a lot of time together watching TV, yet Bart doesn't view Homer as a father figure, and although they spend a lot of time together, Homer doesn't take much of an interest in his life. Whenever Homer does partake in a father-son activity with Bart, it is usually to beat Flanders at something, although, interestingly, Homer is truly offended when Bart gets a "big brother" to spend time with. Although Bart oftentimes acts resentful of Homer, he really loves when his father shows an interest in him, in fact, when he cheated on an IQ test and was labeled a genius, consequently winning Homer's affection, he was reluctant to admit he had cheated (even though he was miserable at school) simply because he didn't want matters to go back to how they had been with Homer and his greatest fear is Bart becoming a homosexual.

A possible explanation for Homer's frequent mistreatment or neglecting of Bart was provided in "Barthood". There, Homer states that the day he found out about Bart was the day his life of youthful independence was over, which frightened him as it meant he had to become a breadwinning patriarch despite his unreadiness. Truth be told, Homer admits to being just as insecure and misunderstood as his son and also like him, only wants to be accepted by his loved ones.

Homer can also at times be protective of Bart. As when George Bush spanked him, Homer, in a rage, started a pranking war that led to a brutal fight against the former president. When Bart was trapped down a well, his father stopped at nothing to dig a hole to find and save him. In addition, Homer has also "protected" Bart from the horrible sight of a nude Patty by bleaching his son's eyes, something that his son appreciated. Also, when he took note of Bart's rather merciless mimicking of Abe's "Gorgeous Godfrey" persona on other children, Homer berated his father for this.

Homer is very protective of Lisa and shows a soft side to her that Bart has never seen. She is his little girl and when Homer disappoints her or makes her sad he will oftentimes go to the end of the earth to make things right. Homer sometimes does activities with Lisa which he doesn't enjoy simply to make her happy, such as attending the ballet. That being said, Lisa and Homer do not get along very well. When Homer does accompany Lisa on such intellectual trips he oftentimes embarrasses her, usually by either falling asleep, saying something rude or unintellectual, or else displaying disgusting habits (scratching his butt, burping, etc.). When Lisa becomes upset, Homer can't usually figure out what it is he did wrong. They have little to talk about because of their differences in interests and intellectual caliber, so Homer far prefers to do tasks with Bart and leave Lisa alone.

He is often annoyed by her love of music and constantly yells at her to tell her to stop making a racket. Lisa is also the moral center of the family, which leads to further clashes between her and Homer, who doesn't really care about the ethics of the various situations he has been involved in. Lisa's intelligence is likely the largest cause that Homer and her do not get along better. Whenever Lisa does make an attempt to protest or explain something to her father, she usually uses such advanced vocabulary that Homer simply nods and replies, "Yes, sweetie," even though it makes no sense whatsoever in the context of the conversation. However, Homer is very proud of Lisa's intelligence and will brag about it to friends and co-workers. Although he is often insensitive to her and her needs (once turning her room into a cellular tower without a second thought and then forcing her to bunk with Bart- also without a second thought) Homer does try to be a good father and puts her happiness above anything else, for example, when he was first told that she was gifted and that she should find a mental stimulation to help with her gift, he gave up the $200 dollars the family had saved for a new air conditioner to buy her saxophone instead.in homer is where art isn't,lisa secretly got a art painting out while switching the painting with a bag and Lisa wanted to be closer with Homer.

Homer forgets Maggie exists—frequently. Once, when talking about their "two" children, Marge interrupted and told Homer that they had three children, to which he replied that the dog didn't count as a child before recalling Maggie. Similar dialogue is recurrent throughout the series. Also, whenever Maggie is referred to by her full name, Margaret, Homer has no clue as to who is being referenced. When Homer does try to interact with Maggie, he oftentimes frightens her unintentionally.

Homer is highly irresponsible with Maggie, often giving her dangerous objects to play with and once completely losing her because she crawled out of her crib. Maggie was an accident baby (as was Bart and Lisa) and having her meant that Homer had to quit his dream job at the bowling alley and instead take his job back at the nuclear power plant so that he would make enough money to support a third child. This was not ideal for Homer because he had only recently quit from the power plant in a very rude and flamboyant fashion. When he returned, Smithers and Burns had a good gloat that he was crawling back and, to further depress him, installed a plaque dead center in front of his desk that read, "don't forget, you're here forever."

Because of all this, Homer fiercely resented the prenatal Maggie, but, as soon as he first laid eyes on her, he immediately fell in love. There are no baby pictures of Maggie in the Simpson household because Homer hangs them "where he needs the most cheering up"-- at work. In his office, he has created a mural of Maggie's baby pictures which strategically cover up one half of the N and the entire T of don't, the GET of forget, the YOU'RE, the E of here, and the FOREVER on his plaque with pictures of Maggie, so that it reads "do it for her." It can be argued from this that Maggie cheers up Homer more than his other two children.

Although they don't communicate well, Homer and Maggie share a special bond and he loves her deeply. Maggie's first word was "daddy", which he couldn't hear (due to being out of Maggie's room and shutting the door as he exited). Homer has shown love for Maggie as he protected her from bullying babies in Eeny Teeny Maya, Moe and earned a hug from his daughter who punched out a baby that knocked him down. Homer later saved her from being carried off by a bald eagle and made sure to hold her close, so the bird wouldn't try again.

In "Future-Drama", Homer's and Marge's relationship has finally ended after Homer blew the family savings on an underwater house. She started dating Krusty the Clown, and eventually, Homer fought him to win her back. Homer was beaten, but Marge still chose to go back to him.

In "Flanders' Ladder", Homer dies at the age 59 after being shot by the police after leaving the food bank with a sub sandwich.

Role in Video Games

Homer is one of the playable characters along with Bart, Lisa, and Marge in The Simpsons Arcade Game. When Maggie is kidnapped by Mr. Burns and Smithers, Homer, Bart, Lisa, and Marge go on an adventure to save her.

Homer has a minor appearance in Bart's Nightmare. In the second half of the "Bartzilla" stage, Homer plays the role of a "King Kong" type ape monster on the top of the building Bart is climbing. After Bart completes the game, his role changes depending on how well Bart does in the game. In the worst ending, Homer and the rest of the family are disappointed in Bart. If Bart's grade is slightly higher, Homer is proud of him while Lisa is still disappointed. If Bart gets an outstanding grade, Homer and the whole family is all proud of Bart.

Homer has a somewhat major role once again. After Bart sells the family cow for some beans, Homer sends Bart to his room after mistaking the beans for food and spitting them out into the ground. Once Bart goes up the beanstalk from the beans, he is locked in a war with a giant who looks just like Homer. Once Bart defeats the Homer giant, the family uses the earned gold to buy a new cow and plenty of doughnuts for Homer.

Homer is one of the playable characters in The Simpsons Bowling, along with Marge, Bart, Lisa, Mr. Burns, Apu, Krusty, Groundskeeper Willie, and Abe (Grandpa) Simpson. Homer has the most accuracy (along with Willie) of any bowler in the game.

Homer is (arguably) the main protagonist of The Simpsons Road Rage. Homer has a major role in the story. Mr. Burns has converted the Springfield buses into nuclear-powered ones and now, they're wreaking havoc on the streets of Springfield. Homer leads a taxi service with the residents of Springfield to put the Nuclear Buses out of business. Homer has the most cars out of any playable character in the game.

Homer is one of the main characters of The Simpsons Skateboarding. He is playable along with Marge Simpson, Bart Simpson, Lisa Simpson, Nelson Muntz, Otto Mann, Professor Frink, Krusty the Clown, and Chief Wiggum.

Homer (along with Bart) is the main protagonist of The Simpsons: Hit and Run. He is playable in level 1 and level 7. He is playable, along with Bart, Lisa, Marge, and Apu. He starts with running errands for the family but then starts investigating the wasp cameras. After falsely accusing Mr. Burns and failing, Homer is reduced to shopkeeper/minor character for most of the rest of the game. In the final level though, he returns. Homer is set off the get supplies for the apocalypse for his family. Homer finds the UFOs, so he steals cars, puts radioactive waste in the cars, and makes the UFOs abduct the cars, causing the UFO to explode. Homer is considered a hero by the town, and a comedy King by the aliens.

Homer is the main protagonist of The Simpsons: Minutes to Meltdown, and the only playable character. After a nuclear meltdown will occur due to Homer's incompetence (and Plopper), Homer must prevent a nuclear meltdown.

Homer is one of the main protagonists of The Simpsons Game. He is playable, along with Bart, Lisa, Marge, and Maggie (only on certain parts). Once Homer and his family find out they are in a video game, they must go on a quest to find the creator of the game.

PTV

In the opening sequence in "PTV", Homer is being chased into his garage a la the opening sequence to The Simpsons, with Homer being flattened by Stewie's tricycle. Peter then opens the garage door, notices Homer unconscious, and asks Stewie who the man is.

Movin' Out (Brian's Song)

Homer is also heard from in "Movin' Out (Brian's Song)". He walks in on his wife Marge cheating on him with Glenn Quagmire. Panicked, Quagmire pulls out a gun, killing him. His kids, Bart, Lisa, and Maggie, witness the murder, and thus, are killed as well.

The Juice is Loose

He briefly appears in "The Juice Is Loose", and was voiced by impressionist Jeff Bergman. He was the Simpson whose presence Mayor Adam West did not want in Quahog.

Cool Hand Peter

In "Cool Hand Peter", the jury of the trial of Peter, Joe, Quagmire and Cleveland consisted of Homer, Marge, Lisa, Bart, and Maggie Simpson, Krusty the Clown, Comic Book Guy, Groundskeeper Willie, Edna Krabappel, Ned Flanders, Otto Mann, Moe Szyslak, and Mr. Burns. Peter is at first relieved to find that it's a jury of their peers, but Joe points out that they don't see it that way.

Ratings Guy

In "Ratings Guy", Homer rushes to report having broken television only to have Peter brag that they beat them to it. Here, he is voiced by his regular voice actor Dan Castellaneta.

Lego Dimensions (The Simpsons)

Homer is also in Lego Dimensions, but you can also play as Bart Simpson and Krusty. Homer is one of the level pack characters in the game. The story level is called The Mysterious Voyage of Homer. Homer's ability in the game is super strength and Big Transform Sonar Smash. Homer's dialogue in the game is recycled from past episodes, including "The Mysterious Voyage of Homer", "Treehouse of Horror VII", etc.

Foreign dubs

Homer's name is rarely translated, though exceptions occur. In the Arabic version, Homer becomes Omar, and it was heavily modified, with alcohol and pork being removed. The Latin American version translates Homer to Homero.

Spanish/Español

Svenska

Per Sandborgh (The Simpsons Movie)

Ukrainian

Yevhen Malukha (Season 1-present)

Mykola Lutsenko (The Simpsons Movie)

Behind the Laughter

Creation

Matt Groening first conceived the Simpson family in the lobby of James L. Brooks' office. He had been called in to pitch a series of animated shorts, and had intended to present his Life in Hell series. When he realized that animating Life in Hell would require him to rescind publication rights for his life's work, Groening chose to go in another direction. He hurriedly sketched out his version of a dysfunctional family and named the characters after members of his own family, with Homer being named after his father. Homer then made his debut with the rest of the Simpsons clan on April 19, 1987, in the Tracey Ullman short "Good Night". He was the first character to speak in the series. Homer's middle initial "J", which was revealed to stand for "Jay",[78] was a "tribute" to Bullwinkle J. Moose from Rocky and Bullwinkle, a show Matt Groening loved as a child.[79] According to Matt Groening, the whole family was designed so that they would be recognizable in silhouette.[80][81]

Voice

Homer's voice sounds different on the shorts than the later half-hour show. Dan Castellaneta's earliest portrayal began as a loose impression of Walter Matthau for not only the shorts, but also Season 1 and early/mid-Season 2, but developed into a more robust and humorous voice during late-Season 2 and Season 3 of the half-hour show, allowing Homer to convey a wider range of emotions.[82] Castellaneta changed the voice, as he could not sustain his Matthau impression for the 9-10 hour long recording sessions and had to find something easier.[83] During an interview with the cast of the show on Inside the Actors Studio, Castellaneta stated that Homer's voice was based in part on his own father who often spoke with an exuberant tone.

He also popularized the catchphrase "Mmm...". Many examples of other "Mmm...s" are "Mmm...candy", "Mmm...pointy", or "Mmm...hug". He has used it less lately.

He also has another catchphrase: "Woo Hoo!" He says this when something goes right for him. When something goes wrong for him, he says, "D'oh!".

Reception

On May 30, 2003, Homer was made an honorary citizen of Winnipeg, Canada, in recognition of Matt Groening's father Homer Groening, who is believed to be from the Manitoba capital.[84]

Homer placed second on TV Guide's 2015 Top 50 Greatest Cartoon Characters, behind Bugs Bunny.[85] In 2005, Homer was listed fifth on Bravo's 100 Greatest TV Characters, one of only four cartoon characters on that list.[86] British TV viewers voted him as the greatest TV character of all time.[87] In 2007, Entertainment Weekly placed Homer ninth on their list of the "50 Greatest TV icons".[88]

The Simpsons has been recommended for use in the teaching of sociology to modern-day college students. The journal Teaching Sociology appraised it as "particularly effective for illustrating sociological themes and encouraging critical thinking among today's undergraduates".[89] The non-academic book, The Simpsons and Philosophy: The D'oh! of Homer, includes a chapter analyzing Homer's character from the perspective of Aristotelian virtue ethics, whatever that is.

Homer was voted the greatest television character of all time by Channel 4 viewers. For voicing Homer, Castellaneta has won four Primetime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Voice-Over Performance and a special-achievement Annie Award. In 2000, Homer and his family were awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Homer Simpson syndrome

A 5-year study of more than 2,000 middle-aged people in France found a possible link between weight and brain function, dubbed the "Homer Simpson syndrome".[90] Results from a word memory test showed that people with a BMI of 20 (considered to be a healthy level) remembered an average of nine out of sixteen words. Meanwhile, people with a BMI of 30 (inside the obese range) remembered an average of just seven out of sixteen words[90]

Merchandising

A golden figurine of Homer from Burger King in 2007

Homer's inclusion in many Simpsons publications, toys, and other merchandise is evidence of his enduring popularity. He has played central roles in the Simpsons Comics series. The Homer Book, written about Homer's personality and attributes has been published and is commercially available. Numerous other items such as bottle openers, alarm clocks and other merchandise are widely available for purchase.

Quotes

"I am so smart! I am so smart! S-M-R-T! I mean, S-M-A-R-T!" (SMRT means death in Czech)[91]

Homer has an email address on AOL called Chunkylover53, and this email belongs in fact to Simpsons writer Matt Selman, and can be emailed to receive Homer-style replies from Matt Selman himself (However, Matt Selman may not respond to emails that were sent to him, mainly because he's doing work for the show). As it was hacked, Matt Selman made a new AOL email for Homer called Homer_Simpson@AOL.com. If you receive an email from this email address, it is simply a reply for an email, if you sent one.

His blood type is either B positive[103] or AB, as displayed on his sperm donor profile, Thad Supersperm.[104]

In "Homer's Triple Bypass", it is implied that Homer's bloodstream has a continuous regulation of radioactivity, as Dr. Hibbert was explaining to Marge Simpson that they injected Homer with a radioactive dye to see his circulatory system from an X-ray until he learns that the nurse hadn't even injected the dye yet (resulting in Hibbert saying "good lord" in a shocked manner).

In the same episode, it was also revealed that his fat can jiggle upwards to at least an hour, as when Dr. Hibbert did a fat analysis test to see how long it would go, it became apparent that it was going for long enough to force Hibbert to cancel an upcoming 1:00 medical appointment he was supposed to attend.

His personality is very similar to that of Peter Griffin from Family Guy, which premiered ten years after The Simpsons began. In "Treehouse of Horror XIII", Peter Griffin appeared as one of Homer's clones. But Homer may be smarter than Peter, since in Family Guy, it is revealed that Peter is actually below mentally retarded, which of that, being below, is worse than actual mental retardation.

He has met Peter Griffin in The Simpsons Guy, where he and Peter fought, where it seemed that Peter won in that same episode, but in the end, either of them did and they called it to just to be equal and agreed that they would be happy to coexist, as long as it was miles away from each other.

Homer owns the Denver Broncos, despite wanting to own the Dallas Cowboys.

It is believed that Homer is diabetic as mentioned in "That '90s Show". However, if this was true, Homer would most likely be dead because he has never been seen taking insulin and the amount of food that Homer eats would just ensure that would already be dead by the point the episode was shown.

In "Fear of Flying", it is shown his favorite song (at the time) was "It's Raining Men".

Homer has temporarily died twice outside of Treehouse of Horror episodes. As shown in "Homer's Triple Bypass", when he died of a heart attack, but was revived when Mr. Burns mentioned a ham. And again in "Million Dollar Maybe", when he was trying to calm himself down after stressing about being rich and not being able to tell Marge, but was revived when he realized he was dead and made a desperate attempt to return to his body. He dies the most times (now 20) in the Treehouse of Horror segments, but they are non-canon.

Homer was originally supposed to have an illegitimate, long-lost daughter in the episode that would have become Insane Clown Poppy, but the writers decided to change it to having Krusty have the long-lost illegitimate daughter instead in order to not make the plot too far-fetched for it to be canon.

On one episode of Jeopardy!, there was a category called "Readings From Homer" in which Homer's voice provided the clues..

Homer weighs between 239-300 lbs.

In all Simpsons video games where you can play as multiple characters, Homer is always the first unlocked character.

In "Trilogy of Error", Homer had his thumb cut off. However, it was sutured by one of Fat Tony's helpers as Lisa's Science Fair Project.

Homer's side burn and ear used to say M + G for Matt Groening. They decided to keep the "M", but Groening wanted Homer's ear to look like a real ear.

Homer only has an IQ of 55. It was revealed in "HOMЯ" that the reason Homer's IQ is so low is because he had a crayon lodged in his brain since he was six. Upon removal of the crayon, his IQ jumped from 55 to 105.

In "Frink Gets Testy", everyone thought Homers IQ is 265 but that was due to a test mix-up between his IQ test and Bart's because of Homer's terrible handwriting, his real IQ is 1.

He is one of the three Simpson family members to break a leg in the series and have the injury last through the majority of the episode,[106] the others being Marge[107] and Bart[108].

Throughout the series, Homer has shown to be highly patriotic. He has also displayed a small form of Nationalism by insulting other countries, making fun of their culture and its people, as well as putting his country ahead of all others.

In "Rednecks and Broomsticks", Homer has shown to have a strong sense of taste by being able to taste moonshine inside the town's water reservoir. His taste buds could, to some extent, be compared to that of a wine taster.

Homer starts out as a anti-hero in The Simpsons Movie when he makes Springfield the most polluted city in the history of the planet. However, he later has an epiphany when he realizes that other people are just as important as him and saves everyone from being blown up by Russ Cargill.

Also in The Simpsons Movie, Homer is hinted to be an atheist when he complains while going into church saying "Everyone's busy talking to their Phony Baloney God!". However, in other episodes, he shows belief in God.

In "Marge vs. the Monorail", the news shows a picture of Homer with what appears to be a mouthful of unlit cigarettes. This joke was recreated several years later as a meme for the game Team Fortress 2 with the Spy class doing the same thing, only the cigarettes are lit.

There was a temporary belief among fans that Homer has a disorder called Intermittent Explosive Disorder where the sufferer overreacts when angered resulting in violent outbursts and property damage.

He is the only member of the Simpson family who has had a speaking role in every episode.

Despite his low intelligence, there have been a few times where he is able to show higher intelligence. These include accurately predicting the outcome of the comet in "Bart's Comet", accurately assuming the cause of the smoke inside a fireproof safe then guessing its eventual explosion in "Homerazzi", and being capable of describing the difference between envy and jealousy which caused Lisa to look in a dictionary and confirm his description in "Covercraft". He also, when hearing of the term "think tank", imagines think tank as the word was intended rather than a literal and inaccurate definition in E. Pluribus Wiggum, with him also telling his shocked family "Hey, I can't get one right?" afterwards to highlight it.

Homer is unintentionally responsible for Maude Flanders' death.

He is the only main Simpson family member who doesn't have anything colored red in his everyday clothes, unlike Marge (her pearls), Bart (his t-shirt), Lisa (her dress and sandals) and Maggie (her pacifier).

Details from Homer's license indicate that he holds a class C license and has no hair.

It is also true that he has a tattoo on his back which says "Marge madness", as seen in "Waiting for Duffman".

Homer was IGN's number one 90s cartoon character.

It has been shown multiple times that Homer has Arachnophobia, which is a fear of arachnids (mainly spiders). This is considered true in "Home Sweet Homediddly-Dum-Doodily", where he panics when a spider appears next to his keys. It also happened in "Treehouse of Horror XXII", where he panics when he realizes that the spider Halloween decoration was a real black widow spider, and panics again when a second spider appears later, and in "Mobile Homer" where he becomes unsettled by the sight of a spider when he was asked by Marge to kill the spiders in the garage and gets into a frenzy when more spiders attack him. This has happened in more episodes than the mentioned three.

Homer is right-handed, unlike most other characters, such as Bart and Ned.

According to his drivers license, Homer's birthday is May 12, 1956.

He has a subscription for Mad Magazine[109], and considers it to be "our nation's largest mental illness-themed humor magazine".[105]

He is of Scandinavian descent on his mother’s side and Native American descent on his father’s side (although the exact tribe is unknown). Since he, Abe, Bart, Lisa, and Maggie all appear Caucasian, this is a more distant gene, whereas his mother Mona Simpson’s maiden name was Olsen (a Scandinavian name) which suggests that his Scandinavian ancestry is more recent. Since his half-brother Herb Powell only shares the Native American gene, it is unknown what ancestry Herb’s mother had.

Homer has had multiple tattoos in the show but these are mostly shown as gags. In "Cape Feare", Bart somehow managed to tattoo the words "Wide Load" above his buttocks, in "'Round Springfield", he revealed to Lisa that he has a tattoo on his arm, but is dismayed when he realized that the tattoo was of "Starland Vocal Band". In "The Ten-Per-Cent Solution", he starts panicking when his pants start tearing because he fears people will see his tattoo of "Donald Duck smoking a doob". Finally in "Waiting for Duffman, he is shown to have a tattoo on his back which says "Marge madness".